Jairus & Daughter (Luke 8)

This is the old version – New Version can be found here.

The moment of a Jairus’ daughter waking is definably the most dramatic visually of the story. This paper model craft is a nice way of capturing that moment, and even has moving parts so the girl can indeed ‘wake up’ as Jesus commanded her to do.

This is quite a long tutorial, but the craft is mostly self-explanatory.The craft is not made to fold flat but to be a standing piece. Please note I have not included a Jesus figure.

You will need a pair of scissors, a craft knife, a glue stick, and both pages from the PDF (Colour | Black and White). I would recommend printing this on thin card, but it’s not necessary.

Start by cutting out the shapes on the instructions page. Try and cut them carefully and don’t worry if you separate the back and front of the girl, we’ll stick them together later. Cut the 2 slits in the bed shape between the parallel lines, this is best done with a craft knife, and can be done before the session if you would prefer.

Glue the pull tab to the inside of the little girls back, that’s the side WITHOUT colour. The markings are clearly visible if you hold it up to the light.

Glue the tops of her head together. This is important to give the girl strength. make sure you let the glue dry for a moment. when finished the piece should look like this from the side. If you get this bit wrong it won’t work 🙁

Slide the pull tab through both slits with the girl laying on the bed. Add glue to the tab on the little girl. placing her so the head is on the pillow and secure the glue tab in place. (this will be almost next to the slit for the mechanism)

Fold the table and the tab on the bowl of food. Attach the bowl of food lining up the dotted lines stick area. The bowl should sit up. Fold the bed into a box and add glue to the edge tabs.

Fold the background along the floor line. The boxes on the floor indicate where the bed and table should go.(The speech bubble can go anywhere you wish)

Pull the tab and watch her sit up.

NB: If you want to secure the background then some extra glue on the back of the table and bed will make the structure more secure.